Seen & Heard: Spend Apple tax windfall on health, says Minister

The unwanted tax bonanza that may flow to Ireland from a ruling against Apple in Brussels should be used to fixed the health service and build houses, Minister of State for Training and Skills John Halligan has told the Sunday Independent.

The Independent Alliance Minister of State said no company should able “to hold the country to ransom” and “if Apple owes taxes to the State they should pay them and that’s it”.

Minister of State for Disability Issues Finian McGrath echoed Mr Halligan’s view.

The European Commission’s ruling on whether Ireland’s tax deal with breached state-aid rules is expected this week. Brussels is widely expected to find that illegal state aid was given to Apple.

Zenith exit linked to fraud data access

A dispute over access to a new industry database was partly responsible for Zenith Insurance's decision to exit the Irish motor cover market, according to the Sunday Times.

The Gibraltar-based insurer is to stop offering car coverage here from February, citing soaring claims costs in a loss-making market.

Zenith has sought membership of Insurance Ireland, the umbrella group for the industry, but could not reach agreement about access to a database containnig information about drivers' penalty points and no-claims bonuses.

The database was established to identify fraudulent and incorrect information.

Among other issues, Zenith is believed to have baulked at the cost it would have to pay to use the database, which was developed jointly by rival insurance firms, the paper said.

Vulture funds turn up heat on SMEs

According to the Sunday Business Post, the rate at which vulture funds are moving in to seize or sell assets held by small businesses has doubled this year.

An analysis of enforcement orders by the newspaper indicates that a handful of funds were behind 20 per cent of the total in the last eight months of 2015. However, that rate jumped to 43 per cent in the first eight months of 2016.

The paper cites an expert who says US private-equity firms are likely to accelerate their enforcement activity even more in the coming months as they look to cash out of the Irish market in the shortest time possible.

Billionaire snaps up Ex-Quinlan French Riviera bolthole

Kazakhstan's richest man, not Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen's comic alter ego) but Bulat Utemuratov has emerged as the €65 million buyer of a lavish French Riviera house once owned by Dublin financier Derek Quinlan.

Quinlan sold the Cap Ferrat mansion, known as Villa La Carriere, in 2011 to a French limited company, according to a story in the Sunday Business Post. The paper noted that funds from the sale went to Barclays Bank, which was repaid in full by Quinlan.

Utemuratov, a former economics teacher, made his fortune from mining, banking, property and private equity.

He is a friend and adviser to Kazakhstan's long-time president Nursultan Nazarbaev.